


Walk the Line

by brunetteandblond



Category: The Naturals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: Case Fic, Dean and Michael are partners, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Post Bad Blood and Twelve, Post-Break Up, Post-Canon, They're older and different, they're adults now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25514305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunetteandblond/pseuds/brunetteandblond
Summary: The Naturals aren't kids anymore, though, they sometimes don't act like it.It's been eight years since they took down the Masters. Three years since Dean and Michael became special agents. Two years since Dean and Cassie broke up.Everything is different.While Briggs is the Director of the FBI and Sterling is working part-time as a mother of rowdy twins, Cassie and Lia have taken over the program, training the new generation of Naturals. Michael and Dean are partners in the Behavioral Analysis Unit along with their trusty analyst, Sloane, and Celine working with them and the Naturals.There's a new UNSUB. Three victims. Three suspects who have all confessed. And everything seems off about the case.
Relationships: Cassie Hobbes & Lia Zhang, Cassie Hobbes/Dean Redding, Celine Delacroix/Sloane Tavish, Lia Zhang/Michael Townsend
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Walk the Line

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! Please enjoy this new story and let me know if you are enjoying it and if you want me to continue! I hope this fandom exists out there, hehe.

_YOU_

_There’s a part of you that no one understands. That reality is what keeps you up at night. It’s not the memories or the painful reminders; it’s the fact that there’s no one to share them with._

_But you don’t need them._

_You’re more._

_More than what they said you’d be, more than what they deemed you capable of, more than what your past allowed you to be. You’re more powerful than any of them._

_This is your entrance, your beginning. You’ve been waiting, but waiting has never been hard for you. Waiting is what you’re good at. It’s gotten you_ here.

* * *

“Jesus fuck,” Celine whispered as she stood behind her, looking over her shoulder like a curious child. “I can’t tell if you looking at this wall for over four hours straight is impressive or disturbing.” 

Cassie snorted. “Who told you to distract me?” She had a bet on Lia, but these days, it could have easily been someone else. These days, it could have even just been Celine. 

“What exactly are you looking for?” 

Cassie rolled her eyes and considered telling Michael’s half-sister to leave her alone. But Celine had sat down next to her, obviously trying to signal to her that she wasn’t leaving. Part of it annoyed her, the part of her that wanted to be alone, felt like she _deserved_ to be alone. But the other part of her knew that if it wasn’t Celine, it would be Lia. And Lia would inevitably be much worse. 

“A revelation.” 

Celine sighed, “aren’t we all.” 

She closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath. She normally liked Celine’s company, but she had come down here to think. Alone. 

“Cas, I think we have a case. Lia’s on the phone with Michael and Dean.” 

Cassie finally looked away from the wall to look at Celine. Michael and Dean were somewhat like the old Sterling and Briggs. They worked cases together as partners, usually with Sloane, a bureau analyst, on their sides. When they needed different help, the kind of help only Naturals could assist with, they called Celine, who worked part-time with them and part-time with the Naturals in Quantico, a program led by Cassie and Lia. 

“How many?”

Celine didn’t have to ask what Cassie’s question referred to. “Three vics. In North Carolina.” She led her out of the basement and to her office where Lia was sitting on Celine’s desk, smirking. 

“Ah, it’s Cassie. I feel so graced with her timely presence.” Lia’s eyes were dazzling, but Cassie knew Lia well enough to know she was lying. 

“Lia, I feel the same exact way.” She tried to mirror the tone of Lia’s voice and it made the liar grin. (It got a small smile out of Cassie as well.) 

_“Hey, Colorado! It’s good to hear your voice.”_

Michael. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was happy to hear his voice, too. “Well, maybe if you came over more often, you’d hear it more.” 

_“Lia is ruining you, Cassie. You used to be so nice.”_

She snorted. She knew Michael was joking, but she could tell that there was a layer of truth in it. Since Michael and Dean were away so often, Cassie and Lia found a place together near the Quantico house. She spent almost every minute with her and she somehow didn’t regret a minute of it. Usually. 

“Yeah, yeah. What do we got?” 

_“Three victims. All women, all under the age of twenty-five. All tortured and died from blood loss from knife wounds. All bodies were covered in paint.”_ Dean. Cassie shuddered at the sound of his familiar voice. The southern accent was barely there anymore. 

She looked at the pictures on the screen of the tablet. The bodies were nude, but covered by the light blue paint. So covered that the torture wasn’t visible. Their bodies were in wooded areas, their bodies lying flat. Like they were sleeping. Like their own bodies were art. Not dead. Never dead. 

The bodies were clean in the next few pictures. Clean and discolored. Clean and broken and blue and full of the pain they experienced. 

_I enjoy the pain I inflict because I can inflict it. It’s my duty. It’s my right. But when she’s covered, when she no longer looks like a body, that’s when she’s really mine._

“Suspects?” Celine asked. 

_“Oh, I’m so glad you asked, dear sister. We have plenty of suspects.”_

Cassie raised her eyebrows at Michael’s statement. “What do you mean?” 

_“Well, I guess they’re not just suspects. Redding, do you want to do the honors? No? You really are no fun.”_

“Michael.” 

_“Fine. We don't just have suspects. We have three people who have confessed to the murders. Actually, they each confessed to a separate one.”_

Cassie shared a concerned look between Lia and Celine. That definitely wasn’t normal. 

Celine asked, “And you’re sure that it isn’t three separate killers?” 

_“Three separate killers with one same signature? Same kind of torture? Same paint color?”_ Dean almost sounded offended, but not angry. Dean never got angry. 

“So…” Lia said, a small smirk forming from her lips. “You’re saying you want to know who’s lying.” 

_“Who’s lying and why.”_

Cassie shared an intense look with Lia. They hadn’t worked a case with them for a long time. They spent most of their time training other Naturals just like they had been trained when they were teenagers. But they were needed. And Cassie wasn’t one to run away when it was time for her to be on the hunt.


End file.
